Verizon TravelPass Customers Receiving Surprise Bills

Verizon customers using the carrier's TravelPass service have been reporting unexpected or unexpectedly high bills for a variety of reasons. Many customers seem to have gone to a country that is covered under the plan, then gone too close to the country's border and accidentally hopped onto a tower in a neighboring, uncovered country. This happened, for example, with some customers who went to Israel, then got bills well into the four figures from Verizon, which included roaming charges in neighboring Jordan, which is not covered under TravelPass and is billed at the normal rate. Another customer claims that they activated the TravelPass feature on their account, but never used the phone in question while in Mexico, and still came home to a bill that included use of the TravelPass feature.

According to the aforementioned user vacationing in Mexico, conversations with Verizon representatives revealed that the feature is only supposed to activate when data is used, when a call is placed or answered, or when a text is sent, though receiving a text message should not trip it. This customer did eventually get their charges reversed, but other customers weren't so lucky. One of the Israel-visiting customers mentioned above fought with Verizon over the charges for Jordan for six months, only to end up having the charges reduced, but not eliminated. It is worth noting that Verizon implemented a fix for this sort of problem in March, where hopping onto an uncovered tower will prompt a user to accept charges before use begins. Rejecting the charges will drop service if there are no covered towers available, or put the device on the nearest covered tower. Another user headed to Asia reported that they knew somebody who had gone to Brazil and used TravelPass, only to come home to a $2,000 phone bill.

Verizon's TravelPass feature offers completely normal use of your device while abroad, as if you were using it in your home country. In Canada and Mexico, the service costs an extra $2 per day of use. Around the rest of the globe, users can expect to pay an extra $10 per day of use, as long as the feature is working as intended. Users taking advantage of TravelPass have full access to their unlimited data plans, if they are signed up for such, and will use their tiered data plans as normal. All four major carriers offer similar plan add-ons for international travelers. Sprint's option includes 2G data and charges in a similar manner to Verizon for other features, while AT&T's roaming plan either lets customers pay for a daily pass to use their normal plan abroad or charges a flat rate for a certain amount of data, texts, and calling minutes abroad, and T-Mobile's option gives 2G or 3G speeds abroad with different plan options, though LTE data can be added a la carte.

Daniel has been writing for Android Headlines since 2015, and is one of the site's Senior Staff Writers. He's been living the Android life since 2010, and has been interested in technology of all sorts since childhood. His personal, educational and professional backgrounds in computer science, gaming, literature, and music leave him uniquely equipped to handle a wide range of news topics for the site. These include the likes of machine learning, voice assistants, AI technology development, and hot gaming news in the Android world. Contact him at [email protected]